Industrial IoT
In addition to identification and localization, metraTec has also been offering components and solutions for the industrial "Internet of Things" for several years. These are components that allow you to easily connect your own products to a local server or the cloud and thus make your entry into the Internet of Things without much development effort.
Background knowledge Internet of Things
The Internet of Things is a collective term for technologies of a global infrastructure of information societies, which makes it possible to network physical and virtual objects with each other and let them work together through information and communication technologies. These technologies allow interaction between people and networked electronic systems of any kind as well as between the systems themselves. Accordingly, the Internet of Things refers to the linking of clearly identifiable physical objects (things) with a virtual representation in an Internet-like structure. It no longer consists only of human participants, but also of things. Automatic identification using RFID is often seen as the basis for the Internet of Things. Components such as sensors and actuators extend the functionality by recording states or executing actions.
To be able to process the information from such sensors a so-called middleware is necessary. The IoT Engine middleware from metratec is a software that collects, filters and evaluates data from various sources. These can be different devices, such as RFID readers or an indoor positioning system (IPS), but also data from barcode scanners, forklifts (current speed) or entire machines (e.g. operating time). In addition to this basic function, the program is used to configure devices in a network and ensure the permanent operation of the entire system. The software monitors all registered components and sounds an alarm if a device is no longer available.
In order to ensure highest reliability, maximum flexibility and lowest costs, a framework has been developed which can be extended by smaller plug-ins. These plugins allow e.g. the transfer of data to other systems (databases, web services, etc.), the monitoring of movements (alarm module) or the implementation of a complete frontend with map visualization. In addition, it is possible to create plugins especially for customers or to write own plugins if the customer has the necessary programming skills.
The advantage of the IoT engine is that your IoT projects use standard software that has proven itself in dozens of large-scale applications instead of individual software (including new bugs) that is rewritten for each project.
If you need more information or have any questions about IoT, please feel free to contact us at any time.